America First Credit Union Rolls Out Location-Based Mobile Offers

The credit union added the capability to its existing mobile banking platform, Mobiliti Entrperise from Fiserv.

Riverdale, Utah-based America First Credit Union has enhanced its mobile app to enable its members to receive location-based retail offers on their mobile device.

America First recently added the capability to its existing mobile banking platform, Mobiliti Entrperise from Fiserv.

The service is an expansion of the credit union's ABC Deals online offers program. Members can redeem deals at designated merchants, typically receiving "cash back", by clicking on an offer within their online transaction history and then spending at the merchant using their America First-issued debit, credit or prepaid card.

America First decided to expand this program to the mobile channel due to its popularity, in conjunction with its mobile partner, Fiserv. Members who elect to use the service will receive targeted offers based on the geo-location functionality of their devices. According to Fiserv, members who prefer not to use the location feature on their phone due to privacy considerations can type in a zip code from which to locate offers, and the app then shows users a map with deals around them.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio

True, any service that uses geo-location will have to be opt-in. I like that this program addresses privacy concerns by also providing the option for users to enter a zip code for local offers. I think people will respond well to that.

We've been hearing about doing more with offers in banking for a long time -- and particularly around leveraging mobile and geolocation capabilities to do so -- so this initiative is an interesting step forward. This also seems to be an area where a lot of the FS-focused start-up tech firms are concentrating.

It will be interesting to see how successful this program is for the credit union in increasing card spend with its customers and deepening its relationships. I like that it's an opt-in service. Pretty much any geo-location service is going to have to be. But this has benefit to the customer, so I think there's a strong incentive for them to opt-in.